• 전기의세계
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• 제26권5호
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• pp.83-89
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• 1977

This paper described the minority carrier lifetime in Si epitaxial layer, and also the voltage (V) versus current (I) characteristics of high resistivity Si epitaxial layer0substrate junction. The measured lifetime in Si epi-layer was much shorter than in bulk, and the temperature dependence of lifetime was found to agree well with Shockley-Read model of recombination which applies to high resistivity n-type materials. The V-I curve showed; an ohmic region (I.var.V), a sublinear region (I.var.V$^{1}$2/), a space charge limited current region (I.var.V$^{2}$), and finally a negative resistance region. We investigated these phenomena by the theory of the relaxation semiconductor.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.17-20
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• 2018

The dependency of the photovoltaic performance of p-/n-type silicon solar-cells on the metallic contaminant type (Fe, Cu, and Ni) and concentration was investigated. The minority-carrier recombination lifetime was degraded with increasing metallic contaminant concentration, however, the degradation sensitivity of recombination lifetime was lower at n-type than p-type silicon wafer, which means n-type silicon wafer have an immunity to the effect of metallic contamination. This is because heavy metal ions with positive charge have a much larger capture cross section of electron than hole, so that reaction with electrons occurs much more easily. The power conversion efficiency of n-type solar-cells was degraded by 9.73% when metallic impurities were introduced in the silicon bulk, which is lower degradation compared to p-type solar-cells (15.61% of efficiency degradation). Therefore, n-type silicon solar-cells have a potential to achieve high efficiency of the solar-cell in the future with a merit of immunity against metal contamination.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.35-40
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• 2015

In this study, an n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diode with embedded Ag nanoparticles was fabricated to investigate the possible improvement of light trapping via the surface plasmon resonance effect for solar cell applications. The Ag nanoparticles were fabricated by the physical sputtering method. The acquired current-voltage curves and optical absorption spectra demonstrated that the application of Ag nanoparticles in the n-ZnO/p-Si interface increased the photo current, particularly in specific wavelength regions. The results indicate that the enhancement of the photo current was caused by the surface plasmon resonance effect generated by the Ag nanoparticles. In addition, minority carrier lifetime measurements showed that the recombination losses caused by the Ag nanoparticles were negligible. These results suggest that the embedding of Ag nanoparticles is a powerful method to improve the performance of n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction solar cells.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.68-71
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• 2020

In this study, SiNx and Al₂O₃ thin film was manufactured using PECVD deposition process and applied to crystalline silicon solar cells, resulting in 16.7% conversion efficiency. The structural improvement experiment of the rear electrode resulted in a 1.7% improvement in conversion efficiency compared to the reference cell by reducing the recombination rate of minority carriers and increasing the carrier lifetime by forming a passivation layer consisting of SiNx and Al₂O₃ thin films through the PECVD process.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제30권10호
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• pp.509-514
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• 2020

The two key variables of an Si solar cell, i.e., emitter (n-type window layer) and base (p-type substrate) doping levels or concentrations, are studied using Medici, a 2-dimensional semiconductor device simulation tool. The substrate is p-type and 150 ㎛ thick, the pn junction is 2 ㎛ from the front surface, and the cell is lit on the front surface. The doping concentration ranges from 1 × 10¹⁰ cm^-3 to 1 × 10²⁰ cm^-3 for both emitter and base, resulting in a matrix of 11 by 11 or a total of 121 data points. With respect to increasing donor concentration (Nd) in the emitter, the open-circuit voltage (Voc) is little affected throughout, and the short-circuit current (Isc) is affected only at a very high levels of Nd, exceeding 1 × 10¹⁹ cm^-3, dropping abruptly by about 12%, i.e., from Isc = 6.05 × 10^-9 A·㎛^-1, at Nd = 1 × 10¹⁹ cm^-3 to Isc = 5.35 × 10^-9 A·㎛^-1 at Nd = 1 × 10²⁰ cm^-3, likely due to minority-carrier, or hole, recombination at the very high doping level. With respect to increasing acceptor concentration (Na) in the base, Isc is little affected throughout, but Voc increases steadily, i.e, from Voc = 0.29 V at Na = 1 × 10¹² cm^-3 to 0.69 V at Na = 1 × 10¹⁸ cm^-3. On average, with an order increase in Na, Voc increases by about 0.07 V, likely due to narrowing of the depletion layer and lowering of the carrier recombination at the pn junction. At the maximum output power (Pmax), a peak value of 3.25 × 10^-2 W·cm^-2 or 32.5 mW·cm^-2 is observed at the doping combination of Nd = 1 × 10¹⁹ cm^-3, a level at which Si is degenerate (being metal-like), and Na = 1 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3, and minimum values of near zero are observed at very low levels of Nd ≤ 1 × 10¹³ cm^-3. This wide variation in Pmax, even within a given kind of solar cell, indicates that selecting an optimal combination of donor and acceptor doping concentrations is likely most important in solar cell engineering.

• 전기의세계
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.53-63
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• 1979

Interface recombination velocity in $Al_{x}$G $a_{1-x}$ As-GaAs and $Al_{0.85}$, G $a_{0.15}$ As-GaA $s_{1-y}$S $b_{y}$ heterojunction systems is studied as a function of lattice mismatch. The results are applied to the design of highly efficient III-V heterojunction solar cells. A horizontal liquid-phase epitaxial growth system was used to prepare p-p-p and p-p-n $Al_{x}$G $a_{1-x}$ As-GaA $s_{1-y}$S $b_{y}$-A $l_{x}$G $a_{1-x}$ As double heterojunction test samples with specified values of x and y. Samples were grown at each composition, with different GaAs and GaAs Sb layer thicknesses. A method was developed to obtain the lattice mismatch and lattice constants in mixed single crystals grown on (100) and (111)B oriented GaAs substrates. In the AlGaAs system, elastic lattice deformation with effective Poisson ratios .mu.$_{eff}$ (100=0.312 and .mu.$_{eff}$ (111B) =0.190 was observed. The lattice constant $a_{0}$ (A $l_{x}$G $a_{1-x}$ As)=5.6532+0.0084x.angs. was obtained at 300K which is in good Agreement with Vegard's law. In the GaAsSb system, although elastic lattice deformation was observed in (111) B-oriented crystals, misfit dislocations reduced the Poisson ratio to zero in (100)-oriented samples. When $a_{0}$ (GaSb)=6.0959 .angs. was assumed at 300K, both (100) and (111)B oriented GaAsSb layers deviated only slightly from Vegard's law. Both (100) and (111)B zero-mismatch $Al_{0.85}$ G $a_{0.15}$As-GaA $s_{1-y}$S $b_{y}$ layers were grown from melts with a weight ratio of $W_{sb}$ / $W_{Ga}$ =0.13 and a growth temperature of 840 to 820 .deg.C. The corresponding Sb compositions were y=0.015 and 0.024 on (100) and (111)B orientations, respectively. This occurs because of a fortuitous in the Sb distribution coefficient with orientation. Interface recombination velocity was estimated from the dependence of the effective minority carrier lifetime on double-heterojunction spacing, using either optical phase-shift or electroluminescence timedecay techniques. The recombination velocity at a (100) interface was reduced from (2 to 3)*10$^{4}$ for y=0 to (6 to 7)*10$^{3}$ cm/sec for lattice-matched $Al_{0.85}$G $a_{0.15}$As-GaA $s_{0.985}$S $b_{0.015}$ Although this reduction is slightly less than that expected from the exponential relationship between interface recombination velocity and lattice mismatch as found in the AlGaAs-GaAs system, solar cells constructed from such a combination of materials should have an excellent spectral response to photons with energies over the full range from 1.4 to 2.6 eV. Similar measurements on a (111) B oriented lattice-matched heterojunction produced some-what larger interface recombination velocities.ities.ities.s.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제22권9호
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• pp.450-453
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• 2012

In crystalline solar cells, the substrate itself constitutes a large portion of the fabrication cost as it is derived from semiconductor ingots grown in costly high temperature processes. Thinner wafer substrates allow some cost saving as more wafers can be sliced from a given ingot, although technological limitations in slicing or sawing of wafers off an ingot, as well as the physical strength of the sliced wafers, put a lower limit on the substrate thickness. Complementary to these economical and techno-physical points of view, a device operation point of view of the substrate thickness would be useful. With this in mind, BC-BJ Si and GaAs solar cells are compared one to one by means of the Medici device simulation, with a particular emphasis on the substrate thickness. Under ideal conditions of 0.6 ${\mu}m$ photons entering the 10 ${\mu}m$-wide BC-BJ solar cells at the normal incident angle (${\theta}=90^{\circ}$), GaAs is about 2.3 times more efficient than Si in terms of peak cell power output: 42.3 $mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ vs. 18.2 $mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$. This strong performance of GaAs, though only under ideal conditions, gives a strong indication that this material could stand competitively against Si, despite its known high material and process costs. Within the limitation of the minority carrier recombination lifetime value of $5{\times}10^{-5}$ sec used in the device simulation, the solar cell power is known to be only weakly dependent on the substrate thickness, particularly under about 100 ${\mu}m$, for both Si and GaAs. Though the optimum substrate thickness is about 100 ${\mu}m$ or less, the reduction in the power output is less than 10% from the peak values even when the substrate thickness is increased to 190 ${\mu}m$. Thus, for crystalline Si and GaAs with a relatively long recombination lifetime, extra efforts to be spent on thinning the substrate should be weighed against the expected actual gain in the solar cell output power.

• 신재생에너지
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.24-34
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• 2012

The main issue of boron doped p-type czochralski-grown silicon solar cells is the degradation when they are exposed to light or minority carriers injection. This is due to the meta-stable defect such as boron-oxygen in the Cz-Si material. Although a clear explanation is still researching, recent investigations have revealed that the Cz-Si defect is related with the boron and the oxygen concentration. They also revealed how these defects act a recombination centers in solar cells using density function theory (DFT) calculation. This paper reviews the physical understanding and gives an overview of the degradation models. Therefore, various methods for avoiding the light-induced degradation in Cz-Si solar cells are compared in this paper.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제49권1호
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• pp.209-215
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• 2017

Fast neutron irradiation was used to improve the switching speed of a 600-V nonpunch-through insulated gate bipolar transistor. Fast neutron irradiation was carried out at 30-MeV energy in doses of $1{\times}10^8n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^9n/cm^2$, $1{\times}10^{10}n/cm^2$, and $1{\times}10^{11}n/cm^2$. Electrical characteristics such as current-voltage, forward on-state voltage drop, and switching speed of the device were analyzed and compared with those prior to irradiation. The on-state voltage drop of the initial devices prior to irradiation was 2.08 V, which increased to 2.10 V, 2.20 V, 2.3 V, and 2.4 V, respectively, depending on the irradiation dose. This effect arises because of the lattice defects generated by the fast neutrons. In particular, the turnoff delay time was reduced to 92 nanoseconds, 45% of that prior to irradiation, which means there is a substantial improvement in the switching speed of the device.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제56권4호
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• pp.265-272
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• 2023

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is one of the promising methods for hydrogen production by solar energy. Iron oxide has been effectively investigated as a photoelectrode material for PEC water splitting due to its intrinsic property such as short minority carrier diffusion length. However, iron oxide has a low PEC efficiency owing to a high recombination rate between photoexcited electrons and holes. In this study, we synthesized nanoporous structured iron oxide by anodization to overcome the drawbacks and to increase surface area. The anodized iron oxide was annealed in Ar atmosphere with different purging times. In conclusion, the highest current density of 0.032 mA/cm² at 1.23 V vs. RHE was obtained with 60 s of pursing for iron oxide(Fe-60), which was 3 times higher in photocurrent density compared to iron oxide annealed with 600 s of pursing(Fe-600). The resistances and donor densities were also evaluated for all the anodized iron oxide by electrochemical impedance spectra and Mott-Schottky plot analysis.